Hey Guys
So every year a bunch of friends and I leave the wife and kids at home in Ontario, Canada and head to the mecca of waterskiing, Orlando for a little r&r. It has been coined...."mancation" by our wives who, I think enjoy the peace and quiet of us being away as much as we enjoy the skiing. Six years ago, it started off just being a long weekend but has slowly progressed into a 6 day event.

Normally we ski at Rini's but this year we decided to change it up a bit and rented a whole house with a 09 197, an X1, and a course on a lake just north of Orlando. It is actually owned by a TT member here who uses it as his family vacation spot, and rents it out at other times to cover costs etc.

We had six people and it worked out fantastic. In my opinion the price was super reasonable givin the fact that you get two boats at your disposal, a beautiful house with all the ammenities you could ever want, a boat lift, a surveyed slalom course, and pretty much a private lake.
All you really need to do is buy boat gas, food and beer. We figured that this way we could ski as much as you want and still not be paying per set, which can get expensive.

The conditions were stellar every morning, pure glass, and we never saw another boat out on the lake except for the odd fisherman who did there own thing away from the course. The only real limiting factors we had, were our own hands and bodies that couldn't take any more abuse after not skiing for a few months! It was 73-85 every day and never saw a drop of rain till we hit the airport on Wednesday evening. We BBQ'd almost every night and played countless rounds of poker with more than a just a few beer being consumed.

We also had access to Bella Collina, a Golf Course that is 5 minutes away that was designed by Nick Faldo and is unbelievable. Drew the owner is a member and as his guests, we were able to use the facilities and play the course. In fact green fees were so inexpensive we couldn't beleive it.

I would reccomend this place to anyone who is looking for a ski/board getaway with a bunch of guys or families, it is exceptional!

__________________1983 MasterCraft Stars and StripesCream/Red Metal Flake"Powerslot""The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of GREED-the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of all men will pass, and dictators die and the power they took from the people will return to the people and so long as men die Liberty will never perish."
-Charles Chaplin-

Again the owner Drew is a member here and I am sure he will pipe in at some point to say hello!

The gator story is interesting. We have been skiing around Orlando for quite a few years and have seen a few gators here and there at various ski sites. Normally you really have to look hard to find them, they are quit timid and as they say..."are much more afraid of you than you are of them"
This year we actually did an airboat tour on lake Toho south of Orlando and saw some REAL gators. I will get some pics up soon. There we saw some that were 6-9 feet just sunning themselves and minding there own business. We than came across a 13 footer!.....now that thing was impressive...our guide Dave said it was close to 1000lbs and approx 50-60 years old.
Now one of the guys in our group has always said that he wanted to "slap a gator in the a$$!" every year we went down. Well he finally got his opportunity. The tail of the 13 footer was only a couple of feet from the side of the airboat. He just kept starring at it for about 10 minutes. Then we joked with the guide if it would be okay if he grabbed it............much to our surprise he said that it didn't bother him!.......well that was it, Rod waited about another 2 minutes than just reached out and grabbed the tail!!! Well I am not sure what everyone expected but the sleeping beast moved it's 1000lbs SO FAST that we all jumped about a foot in the air! It was UNBELIEVABLE!
He was gone. We have it on video, I will try to post it tonight.
Well after that, when we saw our little 5 foot gator on Lake Florence we weren't really that concerned. We kept trying to find him whenever we were out skiing.